On April 11-13, the streets of Long Beach, California once again reverberated to the sound of a full field of Formula One cars when the Historic Grand Prix (HGP) group served as the main support race for this year’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. It had been exactly 20 years since Formula One cars had pounded the streets of Long Beach in the last U.S. Grand Prix West, held in 1983. However, when the green flag fell on Sunday morning’s race, nearly 100,000 fans took to their feet to watch what was considered by most to be the most exciting race of the weekend.
Right from the beginning, the race proved to be a classic “David vs. Goliath” battle with the Williams FW07 of Charles Nearburg and the Williams FW08 of Randy Johnson trying to hold off the flat-bottomed McLaren M23 of Danny Baker. By mid-race the lead had changed nearly every lap, but when Johnson made a mistake and spun, it was down to a nail-biting duel between the Williams of Nearburg and the McLaren of Baker. The pair battled for the balance of the race until Nearburg’s tires began to lossen up near the end, giving Baker the opportunity he needed to nip inside Nearburg going into Turn 1, two laps before the finish. Baker went on to take the checkered flag with Nearburg in 2nd, the Williams FW08 of Erich Joiner finishing 3rd and the Lotus 79 of Duncan Dayton coming home 4th.
Other notable participants in this inaugural event were the matching 1971 Tyrrells of John Delane and John Dimmer, the 1968 Lotus 49 of Pete Lovely, the 1968 Ferrari 312 of Todd Morici and the 1980 Ferrari 312T5 of Bud Moeller. Vintage Racecar Journal was also well represented at the event as VRJ columnist Pete Lyons and Editor Casey Annis served as the announcers for all three days of racing.
